Well in my city we are supposed to have the most understandable accents in England. Thats beacuse we don't have one. There are some accents within England that i cannot understand at all.
Most people in the UK see Canadians and Americans speaking with exactly the same accents and then saying that they cant understand a word of what Americans say anyway. Which is a load of rubbish on by 4 visits to the US and 2 to Canada i was able to understand what everyone was saying. There were a few things i could not understand and that is not due to the accent, but due to the different name of particular items to what they are called here.
Deadron wrote:
In Canada, dimes are called "a quarter". They are? Quarters are worth twenty-five cents. We have dimes, too, that are worth ten cents. | |
Spuzzum wrote:
and shouting various obscenities at anyone who commented negatively. Ha! Many people come to British Columbia because British Columbian English is considered the cleanest and most well pronounced English available That's interesting! I didn't know that. Now I feel a strange feeling of water rushing through my throat. Oh, that's why. I'm drinking water. -smacks self in head- Anyway, to refute the argument. I say 'about'. As in, 'a title bout'. If you want me to prove it, I have a microphone handy. =P So do I! In actual fact, I've never heard anybody say aboot over here. And, last time I checked, I haven't said 'eh?' in my actual dialogue for over two months. Heh. I have, and do constantly. Blasted Spuzzum. I'm invading your city! -cackles-. So close, yet so far... -eyes Spuzzum warily- | |
Blasted Spuzzum. I'm invading your city! -cackles-. So close, yet so far... In that case, I'll keep a loaded cap gun near the door... | |
Spuzzum wrote:
In that case, I'll keep a loaded cap gun near the door... Uh-oh! a cap gun, Vortezz you better watch out! | |
Uh-oh! a cap gun, Vortezz you better watch out! Well, in Canada, we can't carry real handguns legally (thank goodness!). Plus a rifle would be too unwieldy... besides, I don't have one of those either. | |
Vortezz wrote:
Deadron wrote: Yea, but 25 cents Canadian is rougly equivelant to 10 cents american ^_~ well, more like 16 cents @.@ but oh well *L* Exchange rates suck. Elorien | |
Yes. Plus, we're helping out the Americans far more than they're helping us (they're still being stingy about the softwood lumber tariff, and this WTC thing seems to make them think they have a right to be), so our dollar is continually plummeting.
It was at $0.6385 USD a few days ago. Dunno how much it is right now. | |
Two stories.
Years ago i worked with a scottish woman who had immigrated to canada 25 years previous to me meeting her. She sounded just like everone else, most of the time. The only time her accents were very obvious were when she was doing it deliberately, and when she was hung over. One day I was teasing her about her accent, when I happened to ask her what we (canadians) sounded like. she replied, "ya sound like damned yanks!" There you have it, a quote from an expert. Next story. It might be a canadianism, or it might be an ethnic thing. My uncles are bad for saying 'acrost', instead of 'across'. They would say 'I walked ACROST the yard.' So we picked this up as children, and my brother still says it to this day. It took me years to stop doing this, once it was pointed out to me. My family is alberta redneck, of germanic descent. We also do not say aboot, but rather about. Its a little more common here and in eastern british columbia than in southwestern bc because we have a lot of Newfoundlanders (newfen'landers in their dialect) and nova scotians working on the oil rigs here. | |
heheeh actually a bunch of American companies apparently are getting pissed at the teriff too ^^;
After all, China -is- a much bigger market then the US ^_~ and we're rather close to starting to sell them lumber *L* ^_^ Elorien | |
After all, China -is- a much bigger market then the US ^_~ and we're rather close to starting to sell them lumber *L* ^_^ And what better way to stick it to our Capitalist neighbours (forgetting that fact that we too are Capitalist) by dealing with a Communist country! | |
Spuzzum wrote:
After all, China -is- a much bigger market then the US ^_~ and we're rather close to starting to sell them lumber *L* ^_^ *shrug* Less chance of them dropping nukes on us if we have somethign they dont wanna destroy @.@ *LOL* Elorien | |
Many people come to British Columbia because British Columbian English is considered the cleanest and most well pronounced English available (the SoCal area in the general region of LA and San Fran and all that is also considered to be fairly clear). That is, no accenting whatsoever.
(Technically, accents come from a point of view, but everyone who comes from another country -- Brits, Aussies, etc. -- often comments on how clear the English sounds over here. It obviously sounds awfully strange to them, but they have no problems understanding our English, because we pronounce every syllable (although we often say "walkin'" instead of "walking" -- who doesn't?). The only problem comes from non-grammar purists, but in their case the word 'eh' never shows up. Rather, 'like' and 'you know' show up in proliferation.)
Anyway, to refute the argument. I say 'about'. As in, 'a title bout'. If you want me to prove it, I have a microphone handy. =P
And, last time I checked, I haven't said 'eh?' in my actual dialogue for over two months. Two months ago was one occurrence, and two months before that was another. I do say "huh" as a sentence postface at times, but that is also very rare.
The only time I say 'aboot' in the form of 'aboot' ('aboaut'? That's French-Canadian grammar, not Canadian grammar) is when I'm intentionally doing it for a laugh.
"It's aboot durned time, eh?" -- Rob MacKenzie